Revised masthead:
President – Eric Fawcett (416) 978-5217 Secretary – Brydon Gombay (416) 978-6928 Treasurer – Derek Manchester (416) 978-2978 Education Director – Terry Gardner (416) 978-6926 Research Director – Derek Paul (416) 978-2971 Publicity Director – Metta Spencer (416) 828-5316 Liaison Director – Rose Sheinin (416) 978-2754 Bulletin Editor – Edward Barbeau (416) 978-8601
Room A102. University College University of Toronto Toronto, Ontario M5S 1A1
S4P thanks Doreen Morton for typing this Bulletin.
83.1. What Is The Bulletin?
Science for Peace is rapidly growing and has reached the stage at which local chapters are forming and developing their own activities. The Bulletin will become less of a notice board for local events, and focus more on the activities of Science for Peace members. Ultimately, we would like the Bulletin to be a journal of some professional standing which will inform the membership and the public at large about our scientific activities directed towards a viable and secure peace.
Consequently, members are encouraged to send in reviews, abstracts of papers published elsewhere or presented at meetings, brief articles directed to a general scientific audience (which will be refereed), reports of the activities of S4P chapters and news of grants awarded and projects under way. Letters to the editor are particularly welcome.
Currently, it appears to be most feasible to plan to bring out the Bulletin quarterly, probably with one of the regular mailings of our organization.
83.3 Physicists
A second Short Course on the Arms Race will precede the Spring Meeting of the American Physical Society. The meeting will be held on Sunday, April 17, 1983, in the APS Meeting hotel in Baltimore Md. from 10:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. Speakers will include Richard Garwin, Kosta Tsipis, Lynn Sykes, Gerard Smith. For further information contact Dietrich Schroeer, Department of Physics 039A, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC. 27514, U.S.A. (EF)
83.4 CANDIS
CANadian DISarmament Information Service now operates from:
Holy Trinity Church Telephone: (416) 585-2255 or 585-CALL 10 Trinity Square Toronto, Ontario M5G 1B1
The operation of CANDIS is still developing, but it is intended to provide:
a monthly calendar of events
a reference library of books, periodicals and press clippings
educational tools
(EF)
83.6 Status Of Proposal For ISMA
The concept of an International Satellite Monitoring Agency was born in the mind of Bill Epstein and brought to international attention at UNSSOD I by the then president of France, Giscard d’Estaing in 1978. The proposal has been studied by Pugwash working groups in 1980 at Avignon and in 1982 at Versailles. The proposal was examined in detail by a U.N. Committee of Experts who recommended in favour after examining the legal, financial and technical aspects. It had been hoped that action would be taken on the recommendations of the U.N. Committee at UNSSOD II, but it failed even to make the agenda.
The Versailles Pugwash meeting in October, 1982 examined various modalities by which early implementation of an ISMA might be achieved. The Versailles meeting was particularly well-timed in view of the intention of the French Government under President Mitterand to press for a resolution at the General Assembly (December 1982 or early in the new year) supporting the concept of establishing an ISMA under an international consortium of nations. The Versailles meeting was attended by Polanyi and Trainor for Toronto and Epstein (adviser to the Canadian U.N. delegation in New York). The upshot was strong support for a consortium which might eventually come under U.N. auspices.
The Canadian Government did not actively oppose the original French proposal, but it did not pursue the proposition with enthusiasm — presumably in part because the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. opposed an independent agency in competition with their own efforts in satellite monitoring activities. Nonetheless, representations made to the House of Commons Standing Committee on External Affairs and National Defense, led to a recommendation of that committee in support of an ISMA and Canadian involvement in it.
From a Canadian perspective, involvement in an ISMA makes sense. Canada has a great deal of expertise in satellite technology, particularly in remote sensing by synthetic aperture radar and in sophisticated data transmission (telemetring) and data processing services. Canadian expertise had been developed in large part as an adjunct to resource assessment and monitoring, meteorological services, etc. Civilian technology in the optical, infra-red and radar modes is so highly developed as to be of considerable value in appropriate adaption to military monitoring applications.
Moreover, Canada has an image among world nations as (in relative terms at least) a peace-keeping nation. Like any other human activity, effective peacekeeping requires the latest technologies in assessment of arms build-up, troop movement, military production, etc. The fact that the U.S. and U.S.S.R. use satellites as the prime means of data gathering and verification by so-called “national technical means”, illustrates this fact. Serious attempts at international peace-keeping must employ satellite technology, at least as an adjunct to other activities (such as seismic, e.g.) concerned with information gathering and assessment.
The challenge to the Canadian scientific community is to explore the possible modes for Canadian involvement in an ISMA consortium and to bring to the attention of the Canadian Government and the Canadian people recommendations for action.
Lynn Trainor
83.7 Canadian Peace Research And Education Association
The purpose of CPREA is to provide a service for persons whose participation in the peace movement has a scholarly aspect. Its newsletter emphasizes developments in research, conferences, books, films, etc., rather than demonstrations — including items from around the world, but particularly from Canada. CPREA is a member of the Social Science Federation of Canada, and we make a point of passing on information regarding the funding of research and publications, the establishment of courses, and the peculiar problems of gaining recognition for studies which are necessarily interdisciplinary.
People who have interests of this sort may apply their skills and express their concerns in the peace movement in many different ways. Some are members of the peace organization of members of their own discipline, such as science or medicine, or of a peace activist organization which appeals to the general public, such as Project Plowshares or Operation Dismantle. A cooperative arrangement between CPREA and Science for Peace was announced a year ago, providing an affiliated membership in CPREA for only $5. for individuals who are members of Science for Peace. (Science for Peace reciprocated, allowing CPREA members to join them for the same reduced rate of $5.)
The CPREA affiliated membership offer was extended, last September, and is now available for current members of any Canadian peace organization. What these members receive is the CPREA newsletter mailed out as a separate item three times a year (rather than as an insert in the journal Peace Research, which goes to regular members) and the announcements and call for papers for the three-day CPREA Conference, which is held each year at a university as part of the Learned Societies Conference.
I would like to add that for academics whose interest in peace is somewhat more focussed on current work being reported by peace researchers, a full regular membership in CPREA is a bargain at $20.00 ($10. for students). It includes subscriptions to two journals: Peace Research and Peace Research Reviews.
When only this regular membership was available many people participated in the CPREA conferences, and gave worthwhile papers, even though they were not members or did not renew membership from year to year. We feel we are now providing the means for them to pay only for the lesser services they desire, and we hope that the number of members of CPREA (which tend to be regarded as a touchstone by agencies which fund conferences, etc.) will more amply indicate the level of interest of the academic community in CPREA’s work.
Don Bryant, Editor, CPREA Newsletter.
83.8 B.C. Chapter Of Science For Peace
Science for Peace, B.C. Chapter was organized in May 1982 by a group of scientists and engineers anxious to use their training as researchers to aid the disarmament movement. The group has at present approximately 70 members.
The B.C. Science for Peace is organized around an executive committee and several study groups. The study groups were charged with researching and subsequently preparing reports on particular issues which were felt to be of particular interest and importance. The groups are currently working on: the implications of the Cruise missile; the economic effects of the arms race; computer simulated nuclear attacks on western Canada; strategies of nuclear war and the implications of the sale of the CANDU reactor. The report of the Cruise missile study group is scheduled for release in January. Monthly meetings are held for the entire membership. In addition to business issues, an outside speaker, or one of the study groups makes a presentation at the meetings.
The B.C. Science for Peace joined and has participated in the activities of End the Arms Race, a Vancouver based coalition of over 100 Peace groups. As part of these activities we hosted a luncheon for Dr. Linus Pauling and have taken part in E.A.R. demonstrations.
The next major activities of the B.C. Chapter include release of the Cruise missile report and a major Disarmament Symposium being sponsored jointly with the Physicians for Social Responsibility March 5 and 6.
83.2 C.A.U.T. Bulletin
The December 1983 issue of the Bulletin of the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) carried several articles relating to “Scientists, the arms race and disarmament”. This was the title of the lead article by Eric Fawcett, and the other articles were:
“Nuclear deterence and the impact of technological change” by Prof. Rod Byers, Director of the Research Programme in Strategic Studies at York University and member of Science for Peace,
“Development, disarmament and common security” by Hon. Douglas Roche, International Chairman of Parliamentarians for World Order,
“Peace research in Canadian universities” by Prof. Derek Paul, Research Director of Science for Peace,
“An International Satellite Monitoring Agency” by Prof. John Polanyi, Director of Science for Peace.
This issue of the CAUT Bulletin also carried the Conclusions and Recommendations of the Pugwash/UNESCO Symposium, Ajaccio, Corsica, February 1982: the exhortation to “all scientists to acquaint themselves with these issues” will no doubt continue to go largely unheeded, but we might hope for some modest response in the form of recruitment to membership of Science for Peace. (EF)
83.19 Address Unknown
Mail to the following members of Science for Peace has been returned “address unknown”. Any member knowing the whereabouts of one of these people should let Doreen Morton know at 978-8601:
Stephanie Cairns (formerly 1574 Bathurst St., Toronto) Paul Jarbeau (formerly 66 Spadina Rd., Toronto)
83.20 Who Is G.B.S.?
For a moment, when we received an envelop with cash and the initials G.B.S. on the envelope, we thought that we had succeeded in recruiting a famous Irish playwright. However, when we realized that he has been dead for some time, we decided it must be someone else. Can anyone help us?
83.21 City Of Toronto – Now A Nuclear-Free Zone
In January, the Council of the City of Toronto passed a resolution “that the production, testing, storage, transportation, processing, disposal or use of nuclear weapons or their components not be undertaken within Toronto by the declaration of the City of Toronto as a nuclear weapons free zone; and that this decision be forwarded to the Prime Minister of Canada.”